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by Kieran Griffith

Scale: 1/96
Year of time divergence: 1962

In November of 1962 China invaded Indian territory in the Himalayas. This ultimately led to a minor but humiliating defeat for Indian forces and was the main reason why the Indian government developed the atomic bomb. If things had gone differently in and no invasion had taken place then China and India would be well placed to be allies and partners in Asia. I have designed and built a joint Indian Space Research Organization / Chinese National Space Agency Lunar mission. Both nations would be able to afford a lunar mission by 2003 because due to lack of mutual antagonism both of the nations would have smaller defense budgets and be able to spend more on their Space programs.

Here is how it would work:
  • Launching on a Lunar Satellite Launch Vehicle (LSLV) from the Southern tip of India first is the Lunar landing module (LLM) complete with inflatable habitat.
  • After the systems of the LLM are checked over three days, one Indian Cosmonaut and one Chinese Tachionaut are launched on a LM2L (Chinese Long March-derivitive) from the deserts in Western China. They are onboard a spacecraft based on the Shen Tzou Magic Vessel that is known as Moon Goddess (MG). They rendezvous with the LLM within 48 hours of launch.
  • After rendezvous with the LLM the MG fires its booster stage to put it in to a low-thrust, Holhman transfer orbit that will bring them to the moon in 22 days.
  • On arriving at Lunar orbit, the two cosmonauts board the LLM and undock with the MG. They begin their descent towards Valles Alpes so they can pick up where Apollo left off. MG remains in orbit maintained by mission control in Beijing. The LLM lands itself automatically with a triple redundant automated system (with the Cosmonaut as backup).
  • At the beginning of a Lunar day the Tachionaut and Cosmonaut leave the LLM and begin to unpack scientific equipment and inflate the Lunar Inflatable Habitat (LIH) They activate a nuclear generator and de-couple the Lunar Rover. They then have a full 12 days of lunar daylight to carry out experiments and exploration on the lunar surface. Because of the reliability of the Lunar Rover and supply dumps pre-placed in strategic locations the lunar explorers could venture out to a radius of about 125KM from the landing site.
  • When the Sun sets (on Arrival plus 13) the astronauts will retreat to the habitat and carry out experiments and analyze data in the extensive laboratory inside the inflatable habitat. Only short term excursions will be made while the Sun is set ) there should be no shortage of Earthshine).
  • On Arrival plus 27 the crew will again set out on further extended excursions to the surrounding highlands and valley for field studies. This will continue until Arrival plus 40 when the exploration crew will board the LLM upper stage and boost back in to Lunar orbit for rendezvous with the MG. The LLM upper stage will return with 3000 KG of ore samples from hundreds of locations in the area.
  • After returning to the MV, they will de-couple with the LLM and return to Earth on another low energy Holhman transfer orbit taking about 21 days. After entering Earth orbit they will de-couple the science module of the MG. After making the re-entry burn, they will de-couple with the supply module of the MG in a similar fashion to the Soyuz (on which the Shen Tzou is originally based). They will land to a hero's welcome in the plains of Northern China.

    The Model

    This is the first of two entries depicting this mission.

    The model is almost 100% spare parts. The Moon Goddess spacecraft is shirt button, pill, leftover Shuttle and Chinook decals + homemade decals (I love making my own decals on computers but they only work on white surfaces.), bits of space toys, spare parts from old kits, big Tobasco bottle tops, 25 cent gift dispenser container, pill box, pill cup and carnival beads. The engine nozzle is from a MK-2c Hurricane nose. Sheet styrene also played a major role, especially in the solar panels. I painted with acrylic art paints a coat of satin black and white.

    The Lunar Landing Module is pretty much 100% spare parts also. Stem wire form the railings and landing gear. It also is made up of more gold carnaval beads, homemade and leftover decals (mostly made on my compuper), bits and bobs from space toys and some more sheet styrene. The paint job is of art paints again.

    Image: Lander and Moon Goddess, before landing

    Image: LLM, docked

    Image: From above and behind

    Image: 'Front' view



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    This page was last updated 13 May 2003